I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a big Happy New Year to you all. Thank you to all who participated in the December POTM. For this month I am picking some of my favorite pumps. These pumps were manufactured right here in my home state of Kansas and have continued to be eye catcher for many collectors. The Hayes and Wichita visibles. The Wichita Pump Company, out of Wichita Kansas, was the first company to design this very unique and sleek design in the early 1920’s. Some advertisements state that this company had been in business as early as 1905, thought to be a main distributor for other companies before manufacturing their own pump in 1921. The Wichita Pump Company and the Hayes Equipment Company produced and sold the same exact pumps. The companies were conjoined and officially became The Hayes Equipment Company around 1926. Later on the Hayes company bought out the Clearvision Pump Company in 1930’s. This POTM will include:
Any and all Hayes (Wichita) visibles ranging from 1921 to 1927.
- Square tapered visible 1921: earliest version, lever shut off valve
- Square tapered visible 1921: later version, turn handle shut off valve
- Square tapered visible 1923: access door, available in 5, 10, or 15 gallons
- Different square tapered visible 1923: skinnier pump, larger more pronounced base, different access door, different mushroom top, different center casting (tapered more, more pronounced)
10 gallon.
- “Senior” Square tapered visible 1927 (Air and Hand Operated): same as earlier Hayes and Wichita visibles, but with a larger top with light shade ears. Available 5, 10, or 15 gallon.
- “Convertible” Square tapered visible 204-P-H 1927 (Air and Hand Operated): Hand select gallon indicator. Available with “senior” top.
- “Junior” Straight square visible 604-H 1927: different than the other Hayes and Wichita visible, skinny straight unique design. Different top made only for “Juniors”. 10 gallon
- (Completely different design) 701-H 1927: I believe 6 sided, hand operated, different panels, center casting, top, with or without light manifold etc… resembles clearvision visiibles. 10 gallon
- Model 504 1926: unusual 10 gallon, approximately 22 bends in skins, resembles clearvision visibles.
- Model 182 1920’s: round skins, boring simple design. 10 gallon
There is a ton of different variations in the Hayes and Wichita visibles and I am sure I missed some information. These companies were poor companies and pieced a lot of there pumps together using parts they already had around. Feel free to post any Hayes (Wichita) visibles you have. Here is my hard to find Hayes 5 gallon with original crow version white eagle! Thank you all for taking the time to read my post. Let’s see some pumps!
